Our Faculty

Jocelyn Medina

Teaches: Jazz, Voice

“Singing to me is a personal channel of art, health, and feeling–a therapeutic outlet to enhance self-esteem and express emotion…every singer has the potential to succeed, whether in his or her personal goals, professional goals or both.”

M.M., Manhattan School of Music
B.M., Berklee College of Music

Vocalist Jocelyn Medina was born and raised in Clinton, New York into a family of singers and musicians, and began participating in choirs and piano lessons when she was five years old. “There was always music in the house, and as the youngest of three children I was fortunate to often have the music a parent or older sibling was playing passed on to me…singing came naturally.” Though she studied oboe and piano in high school, voice always remained her main focus.

“Singing to me is a personal channel of art, health, and feeling–a therapeutic outlet to enhance self-esteem and express emotion…[though] my teaching strategies vary according to the needs of my students, every singer has the potential to succeed, whether in his or her personal goals, professional goals or both.”

Jocelyn is open to teaching students of all ages, having worked with children as young as four in both private and group classes. “For students younger than 8, [her] classes focus less on the technical aspects of singing and more on simply being creative and free with their voices, exploring different styles of music that capture their attention, being playful…fun…positive, rewarding and self-affirming.” In addition to basic piano skills, Jocelyn incorporates improvisation, movement and rhythm games into her lessons.

Ms. Medina has also taught a wide range of adults, including seniors, both novice and professional adults, and those with injured voices. She is certified in all levels of Somatic Voicework, a functional, body-based method of vocal training whose techniques have been adopted by a number of her previous and most influential teachers, including Theo Bleckmann and Luciana Souza.

While jazz voice is her focus, Jocelyn loves to listen to and perform a wide variety of music, from jazz to classical, soul and improvisational rock. “I’m hugely inspired by many genres of world music,” she says, having studied in Ghana, West Africa (including percussion studies) as well as in Salvador, Brazil, and most recently spending six months immersed in Hindustani (North Indian Classical) Music in Mumbai, India. However, “If given my choice,” she reveals, “I love working on and performing my own original music the most.”

http://www.jocelynmedina.com/

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